BlogBacks: Randolph-Macon Art Fans Speak Out

My recent posts (here, here, here and here) about possible sales of American art from the Maier Museum of the financially pressed Randolph-Macon Woman’s College have struck a chord with some of the college’s constituents.
—Karri Boyer Aston, Class of 1999, writes:As an alum of R-MWC, I am embarassed by the college’s actions and upset by the ongoing secrecy surrounding the fate of the Museum’s art collection—especially in light of the fact that the college continues to promise to keep alums informed of any decisions. I appreciate you sharing information with your readers, and hope the college will follow suit, but I’m not optimistic.
—Emily Fincher, Class of 2009, writes:As a student of Randolph-Macon Woman’s College (soon to become Randolph College), I am outraged by the many things that have been happening to my college in the past year and I am glad you chose to highlight one of them in the article you wrote.
I am soon to be a studio art minor and have loved the Maier’s collection since the first time I laid eyes on it. I have also been privileged to see some of the works kept in storage at the museum and have heard curators of the collection say how they wish the museum was bigger, so they could display all the wonderful works they have been forced to rotate in and out of storage.
When the college announced its decision to go co-ed this past fall, one of the many lines they used to quell the outraged student body and alumni was that the decision would help in stopping them from the need to sell the college’s “assets,” such as the riding program, the study-abroad program in Reading, England, and most importantly (to me at least) the selling of the works of art owned by the college. This seems to have been one of the many half-truths they told us during this time.
I had yet to hear that Prof. Katzman resigned until I read your article and found out through more research that she entered her resignation at the end of April– a time when the student body was still on campus, but not adequately informed of this new adjustment to the faculty.
If there is anything done by the student body to try to stop the auctioning off of the Maier museum, it will be small and most likely ineffective, but I will support it whole-heartedly and hope that the Lynchburg community, the state of Virginia, and all art enthusiasts worldwide will feel the same.

CultureGrrl

I’m a veteran cultural journalist and lecturer with many pieces in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and major art magazines. I've been a cultural contributor on New York Public Radio (WNYC and WQXR) and provided arts commentary on NPR [Read More …]